Banning Prayer - An Age Old Tactic

This week national news ran the story of a secondary school that had banned 'prayer rituals' as part of its behaviour policy. The policy was challenged in the High Court by a Muslim pupil, with the case arising from the pupil and her peers wanting to pray as a group at lunch time, as per the practice suggested (prescribed?) for them by their religious community. Apparently circa 30 pupils wanted to actively join, but the school appears to have very strict behaviour codes, including (it seems) limiting groups to just four people even outside on the school communal areas.

One might wonder about this '4 max' policy (which sounds more like an anti-protest law you would expect in places like Russia ...), or about the merits of the High Court's decision to dismiss the challenge (i.e. effectively agreeing with the school). What I would like to focus on, however, is the notion that you can somehow ban prayer.

It reminds me of Daniel, and the jealous troublemakers who persuaded the king to create an edict banning any prayer (other than to the king). Daniel was not deterred, and didn't even bother to take his praying underground. As we know, lions became involved and they got to enjoy a tasty breakfast ...!

Banning prayer is an age old tactic, but is a ridiculous and futile notion. To be fair to the school, they are banning 'prayer rituals' rather than any prayer per se. They have suggested that the gang-of-thirty in their ritual would be intimidating, but I wonder if they have missed an opportunity to discuss and set a culture of understanding, multilateral tolerance and respect? Maybe their own staunchly secular ethos is now being used as an intimidation in itself?

For the pupils ... why not keep praying like Daniel, albeit subversively: 8 gangs of 4 would do it, or spread themselves out (a bit like the 2m social distancing thing we learnt in covid) so that technically they are not a gathering! Surely the school cannot proscribe individuals standing in apparent silence, or even individuals kneeling in silence, out on the school grounds?

Those who don't understand the spiritual will try many tactics to hold their position, but none of these are new and ultimately none of them of work.

Resurrection Focus

The aftermath of Easter was that everything was now changed. The whole perspective and deal of religious thought is changed in the light of the resurrection. Jesus was not just a special leader, a person with special power or godly abilities ... He is the one who fuses the heavenly with the physical created order, fully God & fully man in perpetuity. That means we don't just look to Jesus for good example or inspiration, but we acknowledge Him as supreme over all. Whereas before we might have thought of looking to spiritual figures of the past to help us strive to understand the divine and be better people, with Jesus raised from the dead we now see the path of faith is in and through a person - this person Jesus.

The Jewish leaders at the time had thought that they could faithfully stick to 'the faith system' as they understood it by doing away with Jesus. The Roman governor, wanting to keep order and peace to avoid any sense of threat to Caesar, acquiesced to the injustice. For them having Jesus dead was to be the end of the matter ... but from the Easter Sunday He was no longer dead!

Thus the evangelistic sermons recorded in Acts lead to the punchline: 'He was killed ... but God raised Him!'. Jesus is Lord - not Caesar, not any other system or institution ... and we know this because of the resurrection. Regardless of the length or starting point of the message, Peter and the other early preachers showed that they had this laser-like resurrection focus!

In our own opportunities for witness, whatever long way off starting point you might need to work from ... keep this same ultimate resurrection focus in mind.

Implications of a Big Yes

The moment someone decides to make a 'Big Yes' to Jesus, a whole string of fresh questions are triggered both for now and into the future. These basically come down to: 'How should I live my life in the light of this Big Yes decision?'. This is the fundamental question of discipleship, and its scope includes way more than good habits to pick up (such as pray daily, read scripture, attend church gatherings).

For each new believer it means working out: 'What about the other gods in my life?'. For someone who has come from a different faith background, that god or those gods will be readily apparent. However we shouldn't kid ourselves thinking that those from a secular or nominal Christian background do not have the same dilemma - the reality is that we have all trusted in other gods such as wealth, commerce, career aspirations etc. So the same basic question is always pertinent.

Our task in discipling someone is to help them navigate these thought processes as they journey into discipleship. We could of course give a simple and direct list: "Stop this, abandon that, leave such & such behind ...". That would technically be correct, but not necessarily good discipleship mentoring:

1. because the person needs to discover for themselves that these are false gods compared to Jesus - it needs to be their decision that they now own
2. because we want to train the person to take their own responsibility through the rest of their lives to seek God, discern, and act willingly on that discernment

The temptation is to load onto someone, or rush them into what you see 'as obvious' ... but they need to work it out for themselves. In other words the Discovery Process continues past the 'Big Yes' decision into ongoing discipleship.

I once read a story back in the 1700's of someone coming to faith in a Quaker environment. The new convert asked their mentor 'Should I still wear my sword out in public?' (apparently people wore or carried swords in everyday life!). The Christian mentor gave a wise reply: "Wear it for as long as it feels comfortable ...". I think they were saying: "Ask God, and when you realise what He is telling you, then it is definitely time to act!"

In our mission activity, let us not get people to tick boxes that we choose to put in front of them! No - let us point people to Jesus, and enable them to be true Jesus-followers in their own right, where they take action on what Jesus lays on their heart. Sure it will need some direction, prodding and pointing on the way, and the process may be frustrating or slow ... but ultimately way more fruitful.

One Shall Tell Another ...

One of the important aspects of the Discovery Bible approach that we are using is to methodically include an encouragement & challenge to tell others in each session. This is usually towards the end of the session with a question like 'who do you think you might tell?' or 'how / when might we tell this to others?'.

This question is used even in the earliest stages, before the participants have received Christ for themselves. The fact that they have not made any kind of decision for Jesus doesn't mean that they can't start telling others of what they have discovered so far, or of their steps of exploration.

This is important because it builds in the principle that we can share our faith right from the start. The Great Commission is not some add-on for the few keenies, but fundamental to following Jesus - to discipleship itself. To talk of 'missionary disciples' is counter-productive because true discipleship should be intrinsically missional by definition - it doesn't need the adjective!

At the start of the next session in amongst the natural 'how are you?' questions, each person is asked how they have got on with telling others. Of course this is not an interrogation, and we don't do shame, but we do model loving accountability from the outset - which is another key component of the approach.

Of course it may be that someone has not identified any opportunity to tell, or not seized it when it presented. But with the Spirit at work pleasant surprises can arise: in one session someone fed back that they had not just told the one person they identified the week before, but in fact had told the whole group that they were mutually part of. It is this one-to-many occurrence that gives rise to the possibility of gospel multiplication and further spread of the Good News.